{US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Kabul on Saturday on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan in the final weeks of NATO’s 13-year war against the Taliban.}<\/p>\n
Hagel told reporters that Afghanistan had “come a long way” over the past decade and that a newly-elected Afghan government and its army were ready to take charge as the bulk of the international force departs by the end of the month.<\/p>\n
“As difficult, as challenging, as long as this has been — by any definition, the country of Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan are far better off today than they were 13 years ago,” Hagel told reporters aboard his plane.<\/p>\n
“If, (for) no other reason, because they have the ability to decide their own fate, their own way, on their terms. They’re not completely there yet. But they’ve come a long way,” he said.<\/p>\n
The advances had come as a result of the “blood and treasure” spent by American, allied and Afghan troops, he added.<\/p>\n
Hagel, who is shortly to step down from office, is expected to meet with senior Afghan officials as well as talk to those US troops still deployed in the country.<\/p>\n
NATO’s combat mission ends on December 31, and will be replaced by a support mission of about 12,500 soldiers who will provide training and assistance for the Afghan security forces.<\/p>\n
About 130,000 NATO troops were fighting in Afghanistan in 2010 at the peak of the foreign intervention after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.<\/p>\n
Concern is growing for national stability as the US-led NATO military presence declines, with the Afghan army and police enduring high casualties in battle this year and a series of high-profile Taliban attacks in Kabul.<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama on Friday named Ashton Carter, a technocrat and academic with long experience working in the Pentagon, to replace Hagel as defence secretary.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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